Friday, February 15, 2013

Still homeless after all these years

Josh Hasten reports that seven and a half years after the Jews of Gush Katif were expelled from their homes, many of them are still homeless with no end in sight.

Sitting in her tiny caravan and looking up at the water stains and cracks in the
ceiling from the winter rain, Gush Katif expellee and current Nitzan resident
Rachel Saperstein has had enough.

Referring to her community as a
“refugee camp” Saperstein tells me with obvious frustration in her voice during
a recent interview that “it’s time to leave.”

The 72-year-old mother and
grandmother, a New York native, along with her husband Moshe – who lost an arm
while serving in the IDF during the Yom Kippur War, and was then severely
wounded again in a terror attack near their Neve Dekalim home in 2002 – are
among the over 60 percent of former Gush Katif residents who,
seven-and-a-halfyears after the expulsion, are still not living in permanent
homes.

“I’m angry, I’m depressed, I’m
frustrated, I want to get going and build my house, but I can’t do it. I keep
hearing from them [the Tenufa Authority, formerly known as the Sela Authority,
which is responsible for assisting Gush Katif families with resettlement] –
‘next month, next month,’ but nothing is moving.”

According to
Saperstein, she and her husband have already acquired a parcel of land in the
Lachish area, home to many other former Gush Katif families, have architectural
plans and have picked a builder.

The only thing holding them back is the
lack of a permit for their new home.

“We’re not the only ones,” she says.
“Many of our neighbors are also still waiting for permits.”

Saperstein
says she has no explanation as to why her building permit has been
delayed.

“I think the Tenufa are well-intentioned people, but they are at
the bottom of the bureaucratic government pyramid, so nothing seems to be
moving.

But worse,” she says, “many of the people here can’t even move
[into permanent housing] because they don’t have the money to build. We all
received a small amount of money from the government [in 2005], which amounts to
about half of what it would cost to build a house. But you have people here who
took huge loans and are still paying off mortgages on the houses which were
destroyed in Gush Katif.”

She adds that “the government money was used
for living expenses. People didn’t have jobs – they lost their jobs as a result
of the expulsion, so they had to use those funds from the government just to
feed their children, for education, and just to get by.”

In total,
according to Saperstein, “about 50 families in Nitzan do not have the financial
resources necessary to allow them to move. They are desperate, and they have
even come to me for help.”

Adding to the tension were press reports in
Ma’ariv last month indicating that eviction orders were issued to 165 unsettled
Nitzan families who were unable or refused to pay a newly issued rent fee on
their caravans.

What has happened to the former Jewish residents of Gaza is disgusting and despicable, and our government ought to be ashamed of itself for expelling these fine, upstanding people from their homes and for the way it has treated them since.

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I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-three years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 11 to 31 years and seven grandchildren. Three of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com